The Alfa Thread

[Killacortes]

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[Todd Black 88]

[LateFan]

Killacortes - is that Darren / Vintage Custom's new shop? It's huge!

(and 2002 content!)

EDIT: "Daron"..sorry. I thought they moved to Burlington, but the website says Tacoma. Confused.

[///M42 sport]

My parents had a red 164 growing up. Was pretty awesome even though wasnt the most reliable car.

[Killacortes]

Killacortes - is that Darren / Vintage Custom's new shop? It's huge!

(and 2002 content!)

EDIT: "Daron"..sorry. I thought they moved to Burlington, but the website says Tacoma. Confused.

Yeah they were here in Burlington a little ways back. Then moved to Tacoma so his commute could be much shorter

[LateFan]

Did Wes Ingram's shop move with them?

EDIT: Still in Burlington. Wes is a smart guy.

http://www.wesingram.com/nonalfa.htm

[gte175x]

Where do we find 1 of these classic alpha's?

[LateFan]

Where do we find 1 of these classic alpha's?

First, you must spell it correctly to be allowed inside...

Then, you could try a few places like...

http://www.vintagecustoms.net

http://www.nwalfaclub.com/for_sale.html

San Diego Owners Club:

http://www.arocsd.org

Santos Italian Car Service in Northridge:

http://www.petrolicious.com/santo-s-italian-hangout

http://bringatrailer.com/?s=alfa+romeo&x=0&y=0

The r3v of the Alfa Romeo world: (i.e...Alphar Romero.....)

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/alfa-romeo-classifieds-forums/

[LateFan]

A few (usually overpriced ones) on Hemmings...

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/carsforsale/alfa_romeo

[BlackbirdM3]

Where do we find 1 of these classic alpha's?

First off, you will never find an Alpha. You can find an A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) and the Romeo came from Nicola Romeo who renamed the company by adding his last name in 1920.

A fantastic DVD on Alfas is the Victory by Design one. Its perhaps the best dvd of the series.

www.alfabb.com is the leading Alfa website. There is a HUGE amount of knowledge and expertise there.

The thing you must understand is that all Alfas have rust unless its been sitting in a dry climate controlled barn for the past 30 years like my GTV did. Even so, mine had a spot of surface rust under the passenger side taillight. the more recent build, the more rust prone the cars are. The steel used in the early cars seems to be much less prone to serious rust. My '59 Sprint does have rust, but only where the battery sat. The rest of the car is very solid. Yes, there is a little light surface rust here and there, but if you flake the paint off, there is clean bright steel below it. Its thought that the earlier cars had more virgin steel rather than recycled steel that was used in the later (post '69) cars.

The good news is that there are lots and lots of vendors that either have original parts, or are making reproduction parts. Cars such as my Sprint are a little more challenging to get parts for here in the US, but there are several vendors in Germany who are reproducing many of them. They aren't cheap however.

The SPICA mechanical fuel injection is really a mechanical work of art. People will tell you they don't work well, but they do if they are taken care of. Heck, even after my car sat for so many years, it lit off and idled nicely once I got the points and electric fuel pump replaced. The one thing that is limiting is that big cams don't work well unless you have the FI pump calibrated to move more fuel. There are really two different types, the early type that only came on the '69 US Spec 1750 GTVs and Duettos,and the later type that came on all the 71 and later cars. (There were no '70s imported into the US. Canada got them, Europe had them, the US did not.) There is a guy in Washington who can both rebuild them and adjust them. They aren't cheap to fix however.

A couple good books for the new Alfa owner are "Alfa Romeo Owners bible" by Pat Braden http://www.amazon.com/Alfa-Romeo-Own...o+owners+bible and "Alfa Romeo Alloy Twin Cam Companion" by the same author. http://www.amazon.com/Alfa-Romeo-All...d_bxgy_b_img_y Lots of info in both. Finding shop manuals however is tricky.

A side note, my former GTV is being rebuilt by Vintage Customs. They are likely the best Alfa Rebuilding shop on the west coast. I've seen some incredible rebuilds including changing a normal steel '71 GTV to a GTA clone using custom made panels. Those guys are artists.

Will

[gte175x]

First, you must spell it correctly to be allowed inside...

Then, you could try a few places like...

http://www.vintagecustoms.net

http://www.nwalfaclub.com/for_sale.html

San Diego Owners Club:

http://www.arocsd.org

Santos Italian Car Service in Northridge:

http://www.petrolicious.com/santo-s-italian-hangout

http://bringatrailer.com/?s=alfa+romeo&x=0&y=0

The r3v of the Alfa Romeo world: (i.e...Alphar Romero.....)
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/alfa...ifieds-forums/

Hahahaha....sorry about that, Thanks for the help!

[LateFan]

Don't let it happen again! Ha!

Continue thread history lesson...
Back in the day, these were the cars of Dukes and Hollywood actors. Blown straight 8s, fast, big, glamorous, the best designs, and they won the races and world championships. A young guy named Ferrari was the racing team manager and tuner.











Then there was a war...a big one. Economy collapsed, factories ruined, market changed. In the late forties, there was a continuation of the big cars with gorgeous bodies, but the market was quickly disappearing.

The factory decided to pull the racing team back and run it in-house. Ferrari balked at the lack of control, and by '47 was building his own big cars, using V12s.

.

[LateFan]

In order to survive, smaller cars, smaller engines with better mileage, and more affordable mass-produced cars were needed. Ferrari went for the very small high-end market as the western economies emerged in the 50s.

The iron-block fours of the 1900 and 2-liter series helped them through the 50s, and Alfa was still considered the sought-after stylish performance car.

1900 Sprint coupe by Touring..




Phil Hill driving an Alfa..

[LateFan]

They kept racing, in smaller displacement classes, kept working with the best design houses, and the iron-block series produced some interesting cars, such as the B.A.T. cars. "Berlinetta Aerodinamica Technica" Designed by Bertone, they were pre wind tunnel aero masterpieces, and fairly whacky in context.

With a drag cd of .19, a stock iron block 1900 chassis with 90HP, they achieved 125 mph. There were 9 BAT designs, three of which were built and tested. Two remained in collections, one was lost and ended up as a stunt attraction at a midwest used car lot with no fins. All three have been restored and featured at major shows.

BAT 9 design cues influenced show cars into the 60s, which then influenced designs like the Duetto spider of 1966.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_BAT

[LateFan]

But things weren't so great after the war in Europe & Italy as you can imagine. Alfa developed a new small car for mass production - a first for them - with an aluminum twin-cam engine design with serious sporting intentions. That original engine is the basis for all the 1300, 1600, 1750, and 2000 engines used clear up into the 90s. It's the small block Chevy of Italy. The Veloce editions were hopped up with hotter pistons, cams, twin Weber carbs, etc.

The car was named the Giulietta. A later update was called the Giulia. All the hotrod GTVs we love are Giulias. Designed by Bertone, the first model was a a stylish coupe, the Giulietta Sprint, which was beautiful, quick, and a huge hit. A 4 door sedan, or Berlina, came out at the same time with an in-house design. They called it the family car that won races, and it did. They made Alfa money. The Spider, by Pininfarina, came out soon after. Alfa would survive.